There has been proposed a printing method as a method for forming a pattern of a device, such as a liquid crystal display or the like, on a glass substrate, a film substrate and the like. Since the pattern of the device has been required to have a high dimensional accuracy responding to, e.g., miniaturization of pixels in the liquid crystal display, a reverse off-set printing method has been devised as a printing method capable of printing a pattern having a high dimensional accuracy (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H04-279349).
The reverse off-set printing method includes a printing method using a roller transfer cylinder. The printing method using the roller transfer cylinder has: a coating step for forming a coating surface by coating ink on a surface of the roller transfer cylinder a surface of which is formed of, e.g., a silicone resin; a removing step in which the roller transfer cylinder subjected to the coating step is rotated on a master plate, which is a protrusion plate having protrusion portion in a specific shape, and thus, the ink in the coating surface corresponding to the protrusion portion of the master plate is transferred to be removed; and a transferring step for transferring the ink remained in the coating surface to a work plate as a target substrate to be printed. (see, e.g., Japanese Patent No. 3689536)
In the reverse off-set printing method using the roller transfer cylinder, a pattern of the master plate is transferred to the roller transfer cylinder by relatively moving the roller transfer cylinder with respect to the master plate formed with a glass substrate, a film substrate or the like, while rotating the roller transfer cylinder on the master plate. Then, the pattern transferred to the roller transfer cylinder is transferred to the work plate by relatively moving the roller transfer cylinder with respect to the work plate formed with a glass substrate, a film substrate or the like, while rotating the roller transfer cylinder on the work plate. Therefore, it is easy to obtain the pattern having a dimensional accuracy equivalent to that of a pattern formed by a photolithography technique.
However, the reverse off-set printing method has a drawback described as below.
Compared with conventional printing methods, the reverse off-set printing method using the roller transfer cylinder easily obtains a dimensional accuracy equivalent to that in the photolithography. However, there is a problem in that the dimensional accuracy of the pattern printed on the work plate by transferring the pattern formed on the roller transfer cylinder is inferior to the dimensional accuracy of the pattern formed on the master plate which is used in removing an unnecessary portion of the ink coated on the roller transfer cylinder by transferring.
When the roller transfer cylinder is rotated on the master plate or the work plate, there may be a change in a contact status between the roller transfer cylinder and the master plate or the work plate due to a dimension tolerance, wobbling or the like of each part of a printing device. As a result, the dimensional accuracy of the pattern printed on the work plate is deteriorated, and thus, the printed pattern may deviate from a design dimension.
The problem may be also encountered in a case where a printing pattern formed on a transfer roller including a roller transfer cylinder is printed on a target substrate to be printed as well as the case of the reverse off-set printing method using the roller transfer cylinder, the master plate and the work plate.